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Our school is very proud to have registered as an Eco School which recognises our commitment to developing strategies that sustain and enhance resources and the environment.
We have already achieved a BRONZE Eco Schools Award and are well on our way to achieve the Green Flag status, as a result of the hard work of our pupils, parents and staff in addressing environmental issues. Our Eco Code is:
Eco Warriors meet every Wednesday after school with Mrs Middleton (our Eco Schools Lead), Mrs Crichton and Mrs Coombes. The children share their ideas, complete an annual environmental audit, set environmental targets, run campaigns across the school, hold assemblies to update our community, work in our polytunnel and run competitions. All of which help our school to work towards achieving our Eco Schools targets.
For more information about Eco Schools view their website www.ecoschools.org.uk
Our Projects:
The Polytunnel
Gardening is important for our mental health. Research has shown that gardening can reduce stress and improve mood, as well as enable us to learn new and important skills. Therefore, we applied to the trustees of the John Thornton Young Achievers Charity (JTAF), with the aim to secure some funds for a gardening initiative within school. We were able to attain £900!
We now grow a range of flowers, herbs, fruits and vegetable, providing healthy snacks and produce for our school meals and ingredients for cooking lessons!
Composting
In February, we were very lucky to have been visited by Kirsten Juniper from Dorset County Council. The council provided our Eco Warriors with new composting bins, and with Kirsten’s helpful advice, the children now collect our food waste in order to be able to produce our own compost in school.
Planting Fruit Trees
Our Eco Warriors have planted a variety of Fruit Trees. This project was completed in order to create an important nectar source for pollinators and to provide fresh free fruit within our school community so everyone can benefit from them.
Making Bird Feeders
Our Eco Warriors recognise the importance of creating an important Eco System within the school grounds. Bird feeders help adult birds to spend less time foraging and expending energy to feed their nestlings.
Termly Bag2School Events
We are excited to announce that our school has signed up with the Bag2School company. They are an amazing fundraising organisation which collect unwanted clothes and items, to help schools and other organisations raise funds. These unwanted items are then sent to Western and Western Europe, Africa and Asia. Nothing is wasted. What a great way to recycle our unwanted items on a termly basis!
We like to ensure all our pupils are aware of important environmental issues, making links within our school curriculum! During this curriculum day, we discussed and completed a range of activities based on the importance of recycling. We even all dressed up in GREEN!
Litter Lessons
We understand that LITTER is a current world problem, particularly the amount of plastic that can be found in our oceans, seas and rivers. During an afternoon in October, we examined the negative effects of LITTER in our society, our children explored the following:
Y5 designed a poster to remind others about the effects of dropping litter.
Y6 researched how to reduce the use of plastic in our lunchboxes
Y7 created poems and raps about the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling waste.
Y8 examined litter and the law.
Here are some examples of our work:
Please see our Litter Policy, which is attached to this web page, as well as the PowerPoints that we created for these lessons.
Litter Picking
We actively litter pick in the school grounds. On Wednesday 24th May the Eco Warriors, past and present, also went out in the local community litter picking!
Walk to School Week – May 15th – 19th
Our school participated in the national ‘Walk to School Week’, in conjunction with livingstreets.org. We were very proud of all the families who took part and wish to thank them for their contribution in lowering our carbon emissions.
Saving our water
This year we have made a significant saving to our water bill, by collecting and storing our rain water. Thank you to Charley’s family in Y6, who supplied the school with an extremely large water butt. We are extremely grateful!
Our Notice Board
To keep our school updated, we have displayed our Environmental Review, Action Plan and Committee Minutes, as well as examples of the Eco School lessons that we have completed. This helps to ensure that our community is always up to date with important issues.
If you have any comments or issues you would like to raise please email Mrs Middleton:
KMiddleton@westmoorsmid.dorset.sch.uk
Our school is highly committed to sustaining and enhancing the environment and therefore tries to ensure this is recognised in all areas of the curriculum through our Eco Schools Action Plan targets, assemblies, staff meetings and the Eco Schools notice board situated in the main corridor. We also have an Eco Schools Governor (currently Mr Brooks) who ensures environmental issues are represented on the Governing Body.
If you have any comments or issues you would like to raise please email Mrs Middleton:
